Wearables tackle violence and harassment for Women's Safety X Prize

X Prize likes to partner up to create specific challenges aimed at getting small companies to create products that can help solve humanity's goals. One of these challenges is the $1 million Anu and Naveen Jain Women's Safety X Prize, and today it announced the 21 entrants into the competition.

The prize is aimed at getting companies to build accessible and affordable wearable devices that can help solve violence and harassment against women. It's also got a very specific set of requirements: the wearable devices should autonomously and inconspicuously trigger emergency alerts and transfer needed information to first responders within 90 seconds.

On top of that accessibility, the devices have to cost no more than $40, so that the product can be affordable enough for most people. That's a formidable challenge, but it's one that's standing up to a formidable problem. According to the United Nations, one in three women have faced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, with one in five being a victim of assault on a college campus in the US. Plus, 90% of victims don't report their case.

The 21 teams were whittled down from a list of 85 groups by an independent judging panel. They include teams like Artemis, which is developing a wearable that triggers alerts based on emotional stress level, Krupa, which has an AI-powered wearable that combines user-generated and non user-generated signals to detect attacks and broadcast calls for help to nearby users, and Safer Pro, a new version of Leaf Wearables' smart safety device.

The teams will have six months to put together a deployment-ready prototype, which they will have to demo in front of the independent judging panel in a simulated testing environment in March 2018. From there, the winner will be announced in June 2018. The judging panel includes the likes of venture capitalists, former FBI executives and even an Apple engineer.